


Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons of Blue

by Spikedluv



Category: Shelter (2007)
Genre: Community: shelter_diner, M/M, Post-Movie(s), Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-29
Updated: 2011-01-29
Packaged: 2017-10-15 05:28:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/157498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spikedluv/pseuds/Spikedluv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zach is exhausted, Shaun’s wrapping presents, Zach offers to let Shaun unwrap him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons of Blue

**Author's Note:**

> Written for shelter_diner’s Holiday Fest 2010 using the prompt: Wrapping Paper.
> 
> Written: December 25, 2010

Zach sighed as he closed the door behind him and let his weight fall back against it, happy to finally be surrounded by the peace and quiet of home. It took him a couple of seconds to realize that there was something wrong with that sentiment, and with the silence filling the apartment.

Home meant comfort and love, and while peace could eventually be found there, rarely was it quiet. Zach took a couple cautious steps further into the apartment. He stopped short when he saw the state of the living room. His first thought was that a wrapping paper factory had thrown up in their apartment. There was paper, so much paper, of so many different colors, and ribbons, and bows. Zach’s eyes didn’t know where to light first, as his gaze circled the room trying to take everything in.

He heard a sound which turned out to be Shaun returning to the scene of the crime, Zach discovered when he could tear his eyes away from the explosion of wrapping paper and look down the hallway. Shaun wore a santa hat that had blinking lights running along the white trim, and he was singing to the Christmas music that emanated softly from the CD player.

Shaun started when he looked up and saw Zach standing there, and then a smile spread across his face. Zach felt an answering smile begin to curl the corners of his lips at the welcome sight of his boyfriend.

“Hey,” Shaun said, dropping the tape refill he’d apparently gone in search of onto the couch as he changed direction and headed for Zach.

“Hey,” Zach said back, his tone filled with relief as he eagerly stepped into Shaun’s arms when he spread them wide. He let the strap of the messenger bag Shaun had bought him when he started at Cal Arts slip out of his hand and settle on the floor, and wrapped his arms around Shaun’s back.

Zach moaned a protest and tightened his arms when Shaun made as if to pull back too soon. Shaun chuckled and squeezed Zach.

“Rough day?”

Zach groaned. More like a rough couple of weeks. He’d taken a bunch of extra shifts at the restaurant near Cal Arts where he waited tables because he wanted to get Shaun something special for Christmas, and he’d been simultaneously working on his final art project, which he’d turned in that afternoon. It felt good to have that obligation off his plate, but he was still exhausted from late nights and early mornings.

Zach finally loosened his hold on Shaun and peered over his shoulder at the chaos in the living room. “What are you doing?”

“Cody got invited to spend some time with Jane after school, and I thought it would be a good time to get a start on wrapping presents we don’t want him to see.”

“Good thinking,” Zach said. “Do you want me to help?”

“Actually, I’m almost done,” Shaun said, “but I could use more eggnog, if you wouldn’t mind, and your company.”

Zach smiled and tipped his face up for Shaun’s kiss. “I think I can manage that. I’d like your company, too.”

They separated, and Zach moved his bag out of the way, more so he didn’t trip over it than because he thought he should practice what he preached to Cody. He took the empty glass that Shaun handed him and went into the kitchen where a punch bowl of homemade eggnog sat on the island. A candle burned beside the bowl, filling the room with the delicious scent of Christmas Cookie.

Zach refilled Shaun’s glass, then ladled eggnog into a glass for himself before returning to the living room where Shaun had plugged in the lights on their tree to add to the holiday ambiance, creating a more festive atmosphere to make his task feel less like a chore.

Shaun was on his knees, wrapping on the coffee table, so Zach sat across from him on the couch, leaning forward for another kiss before letting himself sink into the cushions. He watched Shaun cut and fold and tape, and gave Shaun the use of a finger when he was tying a ribbon around the package.

Shaun added the present to the pile of those already wrapped, and then reached for his glass of eggnog. As if he knew how much Zach needed to unwind, Shaun talked about his own day while he wrapped the final two packages, speaking softly, and sometimes pausing to sing about a white Christmas or silver bells.

Zach sipped at his own glass of eggnog and let Shaun’s voice wash over him as he watched Shaun’s fingers turn a plain box into an enticing package that made Zach’s fingers itch to unwrap it.

Zach felt the same temptation to unwrap as he watched Shaun bag up the presents to carry them to their bedroom and return them to their hiding place in their closet. That task finished, Shaun gathered up the wrapping paper remnants and trashed them before stowing the tape dispenser and scissors back on his desk from where he’d borrowed them.

When Shaun returned to the living room, Zach set his glass on the end table and wiped his palms on his jeans. “Hey,” he said hopefully.

“Hey.” Shaun glanced at him with a smile, then did a double take, letting his eyes slide over Zach’s body, easily finding the proof of his arousal pressing against his jeans.

“Hey,” he said again, this time with understanding behind it. “Seriously, now?” he said even as he changed course, as if he were a magnet drawn to the true north of Zach’s dick.

“How much time do we have?” Zach asked, almost not caring if Shaun told him Cody was due back in five minutes.

Shaun had to look at his watch twice before remembering, “I’m supposed to call up when I’m done wrapping and the coast is clear.”

“I think you should take a break from wrapping,” Zach said, ignoring the fact that Shaun was actually done wrapping for now.

“And do what instead?” Shaun asked, playing along.

“I’ve got something you can _un_ wrap,” Zach said, sliding his hand over his groin. His eyes dropped half closed and he moaned at the contact.

The line was cheesy, but Shaun didn’t laugh. He placed one knee on the cushion beside Zach’s thigh, his hand on the back of the couch for support, and leaned down to kiss him. Shaun covered Zach’s hand with his own, and squeezed.

“This?” he said. “This my present?”

Zach could only moan in response as he reflexively pushed up into their hands. He curled the fingers of his free hand around Shaun’s nape and deepened the kiss.

Shaun released Zach, ignoring his whine of protest, and began the task of undoing his fly. “So, for future reference, watching me wrap presents turns you on?”

“It was the hat,” Zach said with a breathless laugh, fingers flexing on the back of Shaun’s neck.

“Tell me you’re not mocking the santa hat,” Shaun said with a gravity belied by the hand he shoved beneath the denim to rub Zach through his boxers.

“No,” Zach gasped. “Your hands . . . oh god . . . Shaun.” Zach pushed desperately into Shaun’s hand.

“Let’s get these off,” Shaun said, releasing Zach to tug at his jeans.

Zach lifted up and shoved the jeans and boxers down past his knees. Shaun moved away from him to slide the coffee table out of the way, and then knelt in front of him.

“Shaun,” Zach moaned, and then he moaned again when Shaun bent his head and took Zach into his mouth.

With his crazy schedule the past few weeks, they’d had very little alone time that didn’t include sleeping, and Zach knew he wasn’t going to last long now that the promise of relief at Shaun’s hands (or mouth, as it were) was in sight.

Zach’s hand returned to the back of Shaun’s neck, fingers pressing against the skin as he rocked his hips, pushing into Shaun’s mouth. Shaun grabbed Zach’s hips and pressed them into the cushion. Zach moaned and flexed his fingers. He loved it when Shaun used his strength on him, and Shaun had a totally unfair advantage, because he knew it. Zach shivered, and Shaun made a self-satisfied sound around his dick.

Zach wanted to speak, to tell Shaun that he was too sure of himself by far, but he couldn’t form the words. And that was before the fire built in his groin, sending out tentacles of heat that curled around the base of his spine, and flames that licked at the most sensitive parts of him. Shaun pressed his thumbs into Zach’s skin hard enough to leave bruises, and Zach made a strangled sound at the back of his throat as his release broke like a wave against the shore and crashed through him.

Fireworks went off behind his eyes and Zach’s world narrowed down to the bruises forming on his hips and the wet heat surrounding his cock. Every muscle in his body pulled tight as he pulsed in Shaun’s mouth, and then went lax, leaving him limp and sated.

“Hey, you okay?” Shaun rubbed his hands down Zach’s thighs, then back up, sliding under his shirt, thumbs stroking the hidden skin.

Zach tried to say something, yes, or Shaun’s name, but his tongue felt too big for his mouth. Shaun chuckled, and Zach felt the cushion dip as Shaun settled beside him.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Zach moaned something that he hoped sounded affirmative, and then tried to reach for Shaun with an arm that was too heavy to lift. His whine of frustration turned to a hum of satisfaction when Shaun pulled Zach into his arms and held him close.

Zach’s hand flopped bonelessly into Shaun’s lap and he found enough motor control to pat his leg. “Give me just a minute,” he mumbled, “and I’ll take care of you.”

“I’m good,” Shaun said gently.

Zach couldn’t control the tiny stab of uncertainty. “You don’t want . . . ?”

“Oh, babe,” Shaun said, “of _course_ I want.” Shaun took Zach’s hand and placed it over the evidence of how much he wanted. “I always _want_. But I’ve missed this, too, just holding you.”

“I’ve missed that, too,” Zach admitted as he pressed his face into Shaun’s shoulder, but he couldn’t resist giving Shaun a little squeeze in promise of later.

Shaun let out a small huff of laughter as he slid his hand up Zach’s arm, leaving Zach’s hand on his dick. Zach gave said dick a loving rub, but didn’t try to take it any further for now. He sighed, and snuggled up closer to Shaun, satisfied to be cuddling with his boyfriend for the first time in what seemed like forever.

Zach watched the lights on the tree as any remaining tension bled out of him, chased away by the steadiness of Shaun’s heart beating under his cheek, and the warmth of Shaun’s arms wrapped around him. He made himself ask about supper, and Cody’s day at school, and the flames of lust were banked, set aside to be stirred later. Shaun told Zach about show and tell, and that Cody had requested macaroni and cheese, and the sweet comfort of the domestic life they’d built together, were still in the process of building together, wrapped around him like the softest blanket.

Zach thought about how lucky he was to have met someone who gave him both, the lust and the love, and who wanted the same from him.

“Love you,” Zach said.

“Love you, too, babe,” Shaun said, pressing a kiss to the top of Zach’s head.

Zach knew he had to get dressed, help Shaun finish cleaning up the living room, get Cody from Jane’s, and make supper, but he wasn’t ready to let go yet, so he let himself have just one minute more in Shaun’s arms.

The End

**Author's Note:**

> ~Shaun’s Eggnog (really Barbara Ann’s Eggnog)
> 
> 4 eggs, separated  
> 1 1/3 cups sweetened condensed milk  
> 4 cups milk  
> 1 tsp vanilla  
> rum to taste  
> 1/4 tsp salt (optional)
> 
> Separate eggs. To yolks, add condensed milk and milk. Mix, then add vanilla. Beat egg whites and fold in. Sprinkle with nutmeg or whipped cream.
> 
> ~Christmas Cookie is a Yankee Candle scent, and it really is yummy.


End file.
